The present invention relates generally to a device and method for marking a point or location for surveying, construction, or other purposes and, more particularly, to a compact, readily transportable marker stake which can be easily deployed at a location to be marked.
Practitioners in numerous professions, including surveyors, construction workers, graders, and excavators, have a need for a convenient, accurate and easy way to mark a particular point or location. Reliable marking is essential for surveying property lines, collecting data for map-drawing, layout of buildings, grading or removing of earth, and many other tasks. The primary method of marking locations for such purposes has been, for many years, to drive a wooden stake at the location and to mark the stake with paint or a colored tape to make the stake more visible.
The use of wooden stakes has several significant drawbacks. To install such a stake securely, it must almost always be driven into the ground with a hammer, and the process of hammering a stake is time-consuming and can lead to painful hammer miss-hits on the hand. Installing a wooden stake in asphalt is most often impossible, in that the stake will splinter or split if struck with enough force to drive it into asphalt. In most situations a number of points must be marked, often with the points some distance from each other, so that a number of wooden stakes must be carried over the distance involved and installed by hammering them into the ground in order to complete the marking. A bundle of stakes, which ordinarily comprises 50 stakes, presents a bulky, heavy and cumbersome load which will not provide enough stakes to complete marking of a complex property line or other project, so that another bundle or bundles must be obtained before the project can be completed. Moreover, such wooden stake bundles are often held together only by plastic strapping, and once the strapping is cut the bundle collapses and becomes difficult to control and carry.
Wooden stakes present further disadvantages in that they are, by themselves, not readily visible since the light color of the wood used (often pine, fir, or the like) readily blends in with the environment and weathers over time to become even more inconspicuous. Consequently, the previously mentioned methods of painting or attaching tape to the stake ordinarily must be employed, although both of these approaches have drawbacks. Painting requires that paint be brought along during the marking process, which can often involve walking long distances for a survey, and when the paint runs out the process may be interrupted so that more paint can be obtained. If a scheme of different colors is to be used to mark different types of locations, different paints must of course be available as locations are marked. Moreover, painting of stakes adds a significant amount of time to the surveying or layout process. Tape tied on stakes can easily become detached from the stake, making the stake difficult to locate when it is needed for reference. The added step of having to cut and tie the tape on stakes also slows down marking operations to a large degree.
Attempts have been made to address the problems of wooden stakes, but all known attempts suffer from various disadvantages. Thin, highly flexible metal wire with a tape flag has been used to mark locations in light excavating applications, such as where buried power lines or other objects must be marked and avoided. However, such wires do not provide sufficient stability for surveying, layout or grading applications, where accuracy is required, and the flags can readily become detached from the metal wire.
The StepStake, a product covered by U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,937, comprises a 9 gauge galvanized steel section of masonry reinforcing grid and a flag of polypropylene plastic board. Two legs of the grid are inserted into the ground, and the plastic flag is installed on two upwardly projecting legs of the grid. The StepStake represents a significant advancement over the wooden stake, but it is not configured for easy hammering into hard surfaces such as asphalt, has a limited insertion depth because of cross-pieces in the grid which resist insertion into the ground, does not provide for a centered sighting pin for surveyors, and still involves some bulk and weight when bundled for transportation.
The present invention provides a device and method for marking locations which avoid or eliminate the aforesaid limitations of conventional approaches. It provides a device and method for easy and safe installation in hard surfaces, even in asphalt; is extremely lightweight and makes possible compact packaging of a large number of marker stakes; and allows utilization of a centered sighting pin for highly accurate surveying.